I've got a customer that's using PlanetPress Design in an innovative way. They are using it as an adhoc data entry tool to print an "eform".
For example, if I had any employee action form designed in PlanetPress, instead of getting data from a system, the design document would be opened and prompt the user for the proper data. The user would input the employee name and ID, action, etc. and then print the form (using Windows Printing) all nicely customized and barcoded for later processing. The data entry would all be based on GlobalVariables the user would be prompted to enter.

Maybe even add a new file extension; PlanetPress Form (.pf6) to tell Design to operate in "adhoc data entry mode". All that's left would be a decent input method for the user to enter the requested data into. Possibly an input window displaying GlobalVariable Names and a place to fill them out.

For those familiar with Adobe LiveCycle Designer dynamic PDF's, I would envision this as a "lite" version of that.

I see a lot of interest from companies looking to have barcode intelligence within forms that can accept adhoc data entry.

PlanetPress excels at "core" automated document creation, but this would open it up to the many, many "adhoc" documents that still exist within any company.

Just a thought.
-nth-

Hello nth,

Have you considered using Web forms and submitting them directly to PlanetPress Watch or PlanetPress Server through its native HTTP input (available with Version 6 and up)?

This way, you don't even have to have PlanetPress Design installed on every station. In fact, you could even fill in your forms remotely, from any Web browser. And you don't need a full-fldeged Web Server to handle everything, although if you already have one, all the better.

Coding a Web form is extremely easy and its use is highly intuitive for end users. Not to mention that by storing it in a central repository (in this case, PlanetPress Watch or PlanetPress Server), you can modify it easily without having to distribute it to every workstation. You can even customize it for each end-user.

Mind you, the HTTP input is far from being an all-around Web server replacement. But it was designed specifically to handle Web form submissions like the ones you're describing.

Let me know if that helps,